Texaco Inc.

Yin L Cheung

Alfred Brown

Stephen L Long

A method and/or apparatus for determining the mass flow rate and the quality of steam in a flowing line. It involves directing the total flow to a liquid-vapor separator. The separated vapor and liquid have the flow of each metered and the flow of one regulated so as to hold the level of the separated liquid constant. Then, by measuring pressure and temperature of the separated flows upstream from the regulation, the mass flow rate and the quality of the steam may be determined.

Method and apparatus for determining mass flow rate and quality in a

Method and apparatus for determining the quality of typical steam used in steam flooding for secondary recovery of petroleum, using a modification of the conventional throttling calorimeter based on thermodynamic properties of the steam. Automatic continuous operation with heat added thereto is also disclosed.

Modified throttling calorimeter

Method and apparatus for obtaining a sample of the liquid component of steam and determining the quality of steam in a vessel or the like, such as steam flowing in a line used for steam injection in an oil well. The steam quality is determined by the known method of comparing the concentrations of dissolved solids in the liquid sample and the feedwater. A sample of the liquid phase of steam is trapped in a liquid vapor separator maintained at steam line temperature and pressure conditions. In this way errors due to condensation in the separator and its connecting lines are avoided. The sample is withdrawn from the separator into a collection chamber at a controlled rate which avoids reducing the pressure within the separator and thereby avoids the introduction of error because of erroneous concentration of dissolved solids within the separator sample. Errors are avoided also which in other methods and devices are introduced by the difficulty of obtaining representative two-phase samples and by deposition of solids in throttling orifices.

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Sugarland, TX, United States of America

Yin L Cheung